I have gotten used to realising that John Wayne somehow always comes out the best in his movies, whether the movies he is starring in are masterpieces or rushed commercial outdated pieces of junk. And, if it wasn’t for a few elements that just don’t work out, this movie could easily fall into the former category, but ultimately falls into an uncomfortable in between.
Also, I am used to judging Henry Hathaway westerns as three star films at this stage. They seem to fall into the category of ‘could have been much better’ all the time. I don’t know why, and it doesn’t even seem to be because of him. He does his job when he seems to be doing things he is not told to do by higher powers, and by that I mean the studio producers. By that, of course, I mean the forced female character, that just draws way too much attention and slows down the pace with the scenes of the interaction between the brothers and the beloved kid that is ever so grateful for Katie Elders, as everyone seems to be in town (well, if everyone was so grateful for her, than why the heck did she end up poor and miserable, is that an unintended and unspcripted message that reads that being nice to everyone doesn’t pay up at all, so everyone be an asshole? Then again, if you want lessons on ethics, don’t expect them from westerns. But if that is the case, then why do Americana westerns always seem to want to teach us a lesson about brotherhood in the classic Indian vs. cowboy films or peace as opposed to war…this is the kind of thing that gives westerns the reputation as an outdated genre, which by the way, I do not believe). Back to the female character, here scenes are awkward and slow down the pace, but also poorly written. It’s one of those moments when you can tell with your eyes closed exactly where the studio hired a script doctor to add in this scene, perhaps to include a rising star like Martha Hyer, an actress I ain’t heard much of, and who gets three annoying scenes in the whole movie, but hey, she gets third billing on the poster. But it’s not her fault, that’s cinema baby.
That is only an example of the thing that go wrong with the film. I am surprised that Dean Martin didn’t start singing in this movie, and no, I am not being critical of Dean Martin, because as far as I’m concerned, I’m one of those people that thinks he was amazingly talented and misused his talent for very long anyways. I am simply pointing out to the obvious fact that the casting is terrible. Is this supposed to be a brother’s flick, as in, are the four main characters supposed to be brothers. Good. Then they gotta look the same, or at least have some similarities. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to know that if you cast Wayne as the big brother (and I’m not going to argue with that choice because although he does look a bit too old, I’m never going to argue against casting John Wayne in the lead for any Americana western), then you gotta have Irish blood in the other three. The youngest is too ‘young’ to tell. But Earl Holliman sounds like he’s coming from the streets in current times, and heck, Dean Martin is much too Italian looking. I mean, both amazing actors, and they do a good job with their lines, but are they believable as brothers? Not a bit. Their accents are all over the place.
I mentioned there are problems with the pacing. Blame the comlicated scriptwriting process of the time, where about ten different scriptwriters would be called in at different times to doctor the scripts, as in change some things, add other things. More often than not, this creates a serious problem in pace, sometimes disguised by the skill of the director, but I hate to say it, Hathaway may have directed some classics, like True Grit for instance, but he’s not John Ford, he is much more leaning towards the studio format.
The film is still entertaining. This brings me back to the point I made earlier, people tend to think that American westerns are outdated and are more leaning towards the major classics of the Spaghetti Westerns, and by Spaghetti Westerns I mean Sergio Leone (and they are masterpieces, I will say that). But this perception is not true. This film isnot outdated. The photography is brilliant, the action scenes are adveturous, and the final fourty minutes or so are heavily charged with more suspance than a lot of flicks nowadays can only dream of. This is due to the skill Hathaway has of making sure that he cashes in a solid work at the end of the day, and to be honest with him, he can and does almost all the time. It’s a shame that he is one of those directors that let the studio make a lot of decisions for them, and perhaps more of a shame that he could make all that work for him in one way or another. But heck, you want an entertaining and not too pompous John Wayne western movie, you got it.
John Wayne is a legend after all.
WATCH FOR THE MOMENT – The explosive finale, preceded by a ‘calm before the storm’ moment with some impressive sound editing, which actually makes up for some of the obvious sound editing mistakes that took place earlier in the movie.